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12 December 2016

Scattershots – 12dec16 (updated 15dec16)

George Rebane

Disagreeing with a progressive's view on an issue automatically identifies your 'hatred' of the cause, principles, values, ethics, and/or people involved.

More kudos for Mr George Boardman for his excellent apologetics about the recently passed Measure B school bond issue that appears in today’s (12dec16) Union (here). I will believe that the monies will actually be spent for deferred maintenance when I see it. All that aside, if I don’t watch it, these pages may get a bad reputation for so many celebratory reports about our favorite left-leaning columnist. It’s time for him to write something that will allow us to reestablish a more balanced view (aka really piss off all of us knuckle draggers) of his political perspectives. Oh well - my duty as I see it.

Gold hits a ten month low, again surprising those vaunted analysts who predicted its price would soar after Trump’s victory (more here). The Chinese, with millennia of on/off hard times behind them, are buying the stuff to add to their families’ stashes. (Chinese buy 30% of the world's marketable gold.) My own feelings about owning gold is that it should be hoarded simply as an insurance policy against any of several scenarios which will instantly increase its value and allow it resume its historical functions as money regardless of how governments will manipulate their fiat versions of it. For the average retail investor, gold should not be a speculative investment to trade on anticipated price changes. I leave you with the perennial exit question about gold – if gold is such a ‘barbarous relic’, why do all governments continue sub rosa to buy it, store it, and use it to settle accounts?

Safe spaces are different for the Left and Right. For the Left, a safe space is a location in which its occupants are not exposed to ideas with which they disagree. For the Right, a safe space is a location from which they can freely exercise their First Amendment rights. This is a seminal difference that the liberal mind has no ability to master as witnessed by their snarky reports of conservative students also seeking a safe space on campus from which they may be safe from physical attack and administrative retribution. To the liberal, these are equivalent safe spaces that justify what the campus 'snowflakes' have been provided. The interested reader can review many other such logical tours de force in posts assembled in our Liberal Mind category.

[14dec16 update] The double dummies at CALPERS finally admit that “a 7.5% annual return is no longer realistic.” As long reported in these pages, anyone with even a modest appreciation of our nation’s economy knew that years ago. The 14dec16 WSJ reports (here) that, “Top officers of the largest U.S. pension fund want to lower their investment targets, a move that would trigger more pain for cash-strapped cities across California and set an increasingly cautious tone for those who manage retirement assets around the country.” Exit question – how come these “top officers” are not looking for work in less demanding fields? Or are they already working in such a less demanding field?

The feds are incompetent at almost everything they attempt – fundamental tenet of Rebane Doctrine and recurring RR theme. More proof rolled in tonight with the report that the federal IT tit is in the wringer re fighting cyber crime and hacking. It seems that NO ONE in the federal government has been smart enough to keep its IT systems anywhere close to current. The fed’s systems are so badly dated that today IT budgets go almost entirely to putting bandaids on old systems to keep them from crashing; there’s nothing left over to even consider upgrades. And maybe that’s a blessing in disguise – what institutions have the worst reputation in the ability to upgrade their systems?

Progressives continue examining the wrong end of their alimentary canals re the CIA and Russian hacking of DNC and Clinton emails. Some of them – abetted by their incontrovertible lamestream sources - even claim that the CIA recently reported their conclusion that it was the Russians who were the guilty parties. Nothing could be further from the truth. The last testimony and report to Congress from the intelligence community was on 17 November in which Director of National Intelligence (America’s intelligence boss) James Clapper states on video that his agencies are “unclear” as to the source that supplied Wikileaks those pesky leaked emails. Now don’t expect CNN, MSNBC, … and other sterling leftwing sources to air such old news in the face of today’s third party reports about CIA beliefs.

How about all that undeniable climate science that our Left and the feds constantly cite to push their agenda for collapsing the economy in order prevent manmade global warming? Before the progressive age undeniable science was presented openly by undeniable scientists. Today these undeniable scientists cannot be identified along with their undeniable published literature. Team Obama says it’s all a big secret – ‘Trust us, we know who these scientists are and what they believe, but we can’t tell you their names or what makes them believe, other than it’s a lot of overwhelming evidence. Now doesn’t that answer all your questions?’

[15dec16 update] Master sci-fi author and Hugo award winner Liu Cixin has written a masterpiece in his Remembrance of Earth’s Past trilogy (wonderfully translated by Ken Liu). The Three Body Problem is the 400-page ‘hard science fiction’ epic that launches the trilogy. It is a page turner that makes my sessions on the treadmill go really fast – I’m about two thirds through the first volume. As a Lucky Strike Extra the reader is introduced to China's perspective about the world along with some of the realism of China’s horrific Cultural Revolution (ca 1970) in which over 100 million Chinese died, and which class warfare atrocity has been largely buried by the lamestream and western progressives among us as they continue to wage their own class warfare. While it is a bit heavy (and happily so) on the science and technology side, the story of our first encounter with ETI is wordsmithed well enough to engage and educate intelligent readers from a wide range of backgrounds. I recommend it to you.

Comments

Some advice for Boardman. NOW by gold with that new mattress stuffing of his. I'm sure he feels Trump will do 'something' to drive the price back up. Like piss off the Chicoms?(ooppsss,, too late)
Note to Boardman. Be sure to pay the taxes on those capital gains you said you "cleaned up" on. We don't need you getting in hot water with Trump's IRS.

As they say down on the river, "Gold is where you find it." As others say, "Gold is for hoarding." I haven't found any lately, thus no hoarding.

FYI, it's only a 200 dollar fine for those caught dredging in other counties. Hmmm. Might be worth my time come summer. Private property of course. You should see what those rascals pulled out the canyons the last two years. That is how rumors start. :).

White people don't need no stinkin' safe places because the whole world is their safe place, duh. It's a white priviledge thing, so make sure you check your white priviledge at the door, you oppressor!

Looks like the EC folks are getting death threats and other demands. You ave to give the democrats credit for being the lowlifes we always said they were. Hey Paul Emery what about that? Do you support death threats to the Electors?

For the Left, a safe space is a location in which its occupants are not exposed to ideas with which they disagree. For the Right, a safe space is a location from which they can freely exercise their First Amendment rights. This is a seminal difference that the liberal mind has no ability to master as witnessed by their snarky reports of conservative students also seeking a safe space on campus from which they may be safe from physical attack and administrative retribution. To the liberal, these are equivalent safe spaces that justify what the campus 'snowflakes' have been provided.

Agreed, except the liberals in this case aren't liberals. They're Progressives, who only believe in free speech for themselves.

The Dems that moi used to belong to had a nice saying drilled into our heads: "I may not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." When was the last time you heard that in liberal circles? Defend to the Death! Your Right to say it. That was the old Left, just as new feminism does not even remotely resemble "real" feminism or, f you prefer, Dr. King's civil rights movement is miles apart from today's civil rights direction and destinations. One peddled success through self empowerment, belief in self, and strength of character; the new peddles hopelessness and dependency. The system is rigged against Y-O-U and you cannot make it on your own. It is a big dangerous world and we will protect you....from others who do not think like you. No yucky feelings tolerated. Words hurt.

Do schoolyard kids today still recite 'Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will be hurt me"?

I am a walking talking micro-aggression based solely on my beliefs. No other reason is necessary, even if I never uttered a world. And if by my existence I am a micro-aggression, then that means I am offensive, cruel. violent, hateful and the full force of the law must to brought down on my head to squelch my words. See, my mind ain't right and the Thought Police know what I am thinking. They know, they know what I am thinking. Well, I always said my mind is a bad neighborhood, lol. But, I am older now and can handle the barrage. It's the younger folks I am concerned about.

Imagine if your son or daughter said the following in our government run institutions of higher learning: "There is not institutional racism. The operative word here is 'is'. There was, but it does not exist in 2016 ".
All hell would break out and no debate would be allowed on the statement. Whatever the merits of the above statements are, that is not the issue. The issue is how did the speaker's words made the hearer feel emotionally, not intellectually.. Anything that can make one sad is to be avoided. You cannot say barrio. Might trigger sad or negative feelings when someone out there remembers growing up on the wrong side of the tracks.

The real safe place issue is as Dr. Rebane wrote. For the Left, it is to be shielded from ideas. Ideas that disagree with the mantra and narrative taught mostly by social science professors. . If you want to get laid on campus, simply repeat what your liberal professor spouted. Opposing ideas are harmful and you will be and must be shunned, no matter what fine character and intelligence you possess. Personality can only carry you so far....only up to Keep Out, Your Mind Ain't Right sign.

To the right, a safe place is simply the reasonable expection to be able to move about the campus without risk of physical harm and being verbally threatened...or assualted. Different universes.

Brad: A private blog can censor who they wish and have a code of conduct as they please. It is up to the webmaster to make rules and break rules and bring the hammer down or look away. The safe places in government run schools and the workplace is the real issue. Too many Helicopter Moms to the rescue, IMHO. Individualism is a dirty word now, is it not?

The left wants to not only be shielded from different ideas but also unpleasant facts that don't jibe with their world view.
The whole BLM nonsense is based on a completely racist and hate filled narrative composed of cherry-picked factoids that exclude any details contradictory to the party line.
Children live in a world of make-believe and fairy tales. Adults face reality head on and deal with it.

BradC, the theft that keeps thieving is the soft bigotry of low expectations which excuses low achievement, ineffective curriculum and incompetent teachers throughout education, from bottom to top. You just can't expect poor brown kids to do well in school.

Poor white kids also have an excuse.

Then, when two sigma administrations show how poor brown kids and poor white kids can do as well as wealthy white kids, the results are ignored as aberrations.

And we all get to pay for them. The new hires should be paid directly from the pot people.
I can't wait to see what side will be top heavy. My guess is that the cost of new bureaucrats will be more than the pot revenue stream.

jon smith at 9:53 - "Please enlighten us as to what in the world you might be referring to."
Sorry - BLM = Black Lives Matter. It's a left wing pot of BS that claims they care about black lives.
Unfortunately its solution is to claim we need more dead white cops and to ignore the violence that is actually killing 99+% of blacks. The facts and statistics are readily available online.
Personally, I have always felt that all lives matter, but the left has apparently a rather dim view of them as witnessed by the high rate of slaughter in areas controlled by the left and the high rate of black abortions cheered on from decades ago up to now by the 'progressives' as a way of ridding ourselves of the unwanted.

EXCLUSIVE: Ex-British ambassador who is now a WikiLeaks operative claims Russia did NOT provide Clinton emails - they were handed over to him at a D.C. park by an intermediary for 'disgusted' Democratic whistleblowers
• Craig Murray, former British ambassador to Uzbekistan and associate of Julian Assange, told the Dailymail.com he flew to Washington, D.C. for emails
• He claims he had a clandestine hand-off in a wooded area near American University with one of the email sources
• The leakers' motivation was 'disgust at the corruption of the Clinton Foundation and the 'tilting of the primary election playing field against Bernie Sanders'
• Murray says: 'The source had legal access to the information. The documents came from inside leaks, not hacks'
• 'Regardless of whether the Russians hacked into the DNC, the documents Wikileaks published did not come from that,' Murray insists
• Murray is a controversial figure who was relieved of his post as British ambassador amid allegations of misconduct but is close to Wikileaks

There is going to be a lot of political egg on some faces if this is true. My question is was the DNC Staffer who was shot in the back as he walked home, no attempt to rob, the leaker. It would be most interesting if Murry was to ID his contact as the dead DNC staffer.

Speaking of outdated IT. According to a 60 Minutes report the LGM-30 Minuteman is still being programmed on 8 inch floppy disks, which are no longer manufactured. As of 2016, the LGM-30G Minuteman III version is the only land-based ICBM in service in the United States. Not for long if they cannot find a supply of 8 inch floppy disks.